Jonathan must resist call for NSA removal - Joseph Evah

2012-05-05
Vanguard Newspaper

Comrade Joseph Evah is the Coordinator, Ijaw Monitoring Group and Publicity Secretary Ijaw National Congress, INC. He bares his mind on the security issues in the country while also berating the call for the sack of the NSA, saying his (NSA) comment was patriotic but misinterpreted. Excerpts.

How will you react to recent attacks of Media Houses by terrorists?

We all condemn it. The new dimension will badly affect investment drive, the attack on Media Houses show that nobody knows the next target. It is very clear that the leadership in the north has failed; I want the northern political leaders to resign from their various positions because they are not representing the masses in the north. For them to continue to tell the world that they don't know the identity of their children causing these calamities shows that they are not fit to be called political leaders. When the crisis was on in our region and violence was forcing oil companies to run away and government was crying because of no oil revenue to run Nigeria economy, it was the political leaders from our region that saved the situation led by President Goodluck Jonathan then as vice-president. They went to the creeks but in this case, the northern political elites are deceiving Nigerians saying they can't trace the trouble makers in their region. Shame on them.

The comment of the NSA at the just concluded South-South economic summit has led to the demand for his sack, what is your reaction?

Comrade Joseph Evah
The comment of the NSA was a patriotic comment but those who want him to go out of that office so that they can plant their own stooge in that sensitive office to endanger the life of Mr. President as well as create a civil war situation, manipulated a section of the media to misinterpret his patriotic comment to mean something else. A cabal has constituted itself to fight the office of the National Security Adviser to the president because they want to hijack that office so that Nigeria will become another Somalia or Sudan in West African within a record time.

But PDP is calling for his sack saying he criticized the party that is in government and he is a serving officer of the government?

Have you ever heard the PDP leadership both previous and the new telling Nigerians the role they want to play to save Nigeria from civil war? So, it is now they want the world to know that PDP produced the government in power. Let them tell Nigerians their efforts over the years to protect the government in power from the daily bomb blast confronting Nigerians and killing innocent citizens.

They should be ashamed especially those who publicly came out to condemn the NSA; they should apologise to Nigerians for being rude.

How can the President sack the NSA when the NSA was using the strategy to force the PDP leadership look inward and wake-up from their slumber and assist the peace process? If we are in a sane society like South Africa or Ghana, the PDP should give the highest medal honour to General Azazi for telling them the home truth. You can see why other countries make progress because patriotic public officers like Azazi are encouraged to do more.

It seems the party is insisting on his sack?

Nigerians will resist the sack. Nigeria is bigger than any individual or group. PDP should concentrate their energies on the peace process. Since the NSA assumes office, he has not declared do-or-die for terrorists. He asked all stakeholders in the Nigerian project to carry the message of peace to the sect so that dialogue can solve the problem but governors of some states and other political leaders in the north who are calling for the head of the NSA over his comment on their party folded their arms doing nothing apart from empty condolence messages to the victims. We cannot continue like this.

Do you think the party will allow the President to retain the NSA in government?

The president is focused as far as security is concerned. So he will not play politics with security of the nation. As an experienced intelligent officer trained in some of the best military institutions in the world while in the Army, what the General did at the summit was what the American or British intelligent community refered to as security alert.

It comes in different forms. A situation where the biggest political party in Africa does not have their ears very close to the ground and their attitude is adding petrol to an existing fire needs caution.

You are aware that the attacks are mainly targeted at Christians in the North but yet, the Catholic Archbishop of Abuja and former President of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN), John Onaiyekan asked President Jonathan to ignore those calling for General Azazi's sack. Even the current leadership of Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) in the 19 Northern States also urged Mr. President to resist the pressure on him to sack the NSA
because they know that the NSA is doing a wonderful work to reduce the activities of terrorists.

You can also see that even my good friend, Alhaji Yerina Shettima, President of Arewa Youth consultative Forum and the entire leadership of Arewa Youths condemned the call for the removal of the NSA. Nigerians are happy that the NSA is working hard and so
let the political leadership in the north play their part and save the nation.

I have appealed to Jonathan to relocate to Port-Harcourt and manage the country from Port Harcourt, the manner General Ibrahim Babangida relocated to Minna in 1990, when Orka coup plotters nearly killed him and his family. It was when Babangida completed his house in the villa that he left Minna for Abuja. The life of the President is not safe under the present circumstance.